Contents

Biography

Ismail Kadare was born on 28 January 1936 in Gjirokastër, Albanian Kingdom. His father, Halit, worked in the civil service. He attended primary and secondary schools in Gjirokastër and he studied languages and literature at the Faculty of History and Philology of the University of Tirana. In 1956 Kadare received a teacher's diploma. He also studied at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow.

Kadare served as a member of the Albanian parliament during Communist rule from 1970 until 1982 and was permitted to travel and publish abroad.[4]

After offending the authorities with a politically satirical poem in 1975, he was forbidden to publish for three years. In 1982 Kadare was accused by the president of the League of Albanian Writers and Artists of deliberately evading politics by cloaking much of his fiction in history and folklore.

In 1990, Kadare claimed political asylum in France, issuing statements in favour of democratisation. At that time, he stated that "dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible. The writer is the natural enemy of dictatorship".

Critical opinion is divided as to whether Kadare should be considered to have been a dissident or a conformist during the Communist period.[1] For his part, Kadare has stated that he had never claimed to be an "Albanian Solzhenitsyn" or a dissident, and that "dissidence was a position no one could occupy [in Enver Hoxha's Albania], even for a few days, without facing the firing squad. On the other hand, my books themselves constitute a very obvious form of resistance".[5] Referring to The Great Winter (1977), a novel in which he portrayed Enver Hoxha in a flattering light, Kadare said the book was "the price he had to pay for his freedom".[6] For additional illumination see Kadare's commentary 'In the Palace of Nightmares': An Exchange with Noel Malcolm in the New York Review of Books.[7]

Literary themes

Kadare's novels draw on legends surrounding the historical experience of Albanian people, the representation of classical myths in modern contexts, and the totalitarian regime experiment in Albania. They are obliquely ironic as a result of trying to withstand political scrutiny. Among his best known books are Chronicle in Stone (1977), Broken April (1978),[1][2]The Palace of Dreams (1980) and The Concert (1988), considered the best novel of the year 1991 by the French literary magazine Lire.[8]

La Pyramide (1992), written in French, was set in Egypt in the 26th century B.C. and after. In it, Kadare mocked Hoxha's fondness for elaborate statues, the pyramid form also reflecting any dictator's love for hierarchy. The Accident (2010) was a multi-layered novel about two lovers, whose death launches an investigation not only of their relationship, but also of Balkan politics.

Recognition

Kadare's works have been published in over forty countries and translated in over thirty languages. In English, his works have usually appeared as secondary translations from their French editions, often rendered by the scholar David Bellos.[9]

The London newspaper, Orwell. But Kadare's is an original voice, universal yet deeply rooted in his own soil".[11]

Selected works

Kadare's original Albanian language works have been published exclusively by Onufri Publishing House since 1996,[12] as single works or entire sets. The following Kadare novels have been translated into English (in chronological order of first publication):

The Monster (1965) (Albanian: Përbindëshi); shortly published in 1965 in the literary Nëntori magazine, the novel was soon censored and never appeared on the libraries. It was republished only 30 years later.[13]

The Ghost Rider (2011); an updated translation of Doruntine. It has been revised to include previously omitted text.

Works published in French

The complete works (except for the essays) of Ismail Kadare were published by Fayard, simultaneously in French and Albanian, between 1993 and 2004.[14] Omitted from the list are the poetry and the short stories.

The dates of publication given here are those of the first publication in Albanian, unless stated otherwise. Kadare has often reworked his writings, and the newer editions may include significant differences from the original text.

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